24 health advocates go to school

Dormaa-Ahenkro (B/A), July 11, GNA - Twenty four selected community members from the Dormaa Municipality on Health Advocacy and Accountability have undergone a one day training at Dormaa-Ahenkro.

It was organised by the Centre for the Development of People (CEDEP), a Non-Governmental Organisation (NGO), with sponsorship from Strengthening Transparency and Accountability Responsiveness.

The workshop was aimed at exposing the participants to basic elements of advocacy and how to employ them to facilitate identification of health needs for onward engagement of relevant bodies for solution.

Participants were taken through the art of facilitation, Data Collection and mode of communication to prepare them adequately for their surveillance and advocacy responsibilities.

CEDEP's Coordinator, Madam Aba Oppong, noted that successful advocacy could only be achieved where objectives for the exercise were specific, real, achievable, measurable and time-bound.

She charged the trainees to take keen interest in all factors bordering on the health of the people and what role was expected of both implementers and prospective beneficiaries of health projects and programmes.

Madam Oppong announced that her organisation was collaborating with Alliance for Reproductive Health Rights, another NGO, to provide similar training to selected groups in the Sekyere-East District of the Ashanti Region.

She said the over-all target was to equip communities with the necessary courage and skills to enable them deal adequately with health issues including maternal health and communicable diseases.